Thursday, December 10, 2009

Wednesday's Afghan detainee scandal developments

A few points on yesterday's developments, principally General Natynczyk's realization that yes, there was torture of a Canadian transferred detainee, undercutting Defence Minister MacKay's repeated assertions.

2. This posture of total deference to the military we're hearing from these Harper Conservatives now, i.e., however the military story may shift on a certain day, that's how the Harper politicos therefore bend, as they did yesterday...the obvious point is that the buck stops with the government. And the PM controls everything in it. Remember that Star report that hasn't figured much yet in all of this, it still points a finger into the PMO with respect to control of information on detainees. Message management was also a theme echoed in the CP report yesterday on prioritization of that message management over actually doing something to prevent detainee handovers in this tenuous situation.

3. Craig Oliver was repeatedly floating an off base theory yesterday about the military now providing "cover" to the Harper government as a result of Natynczyk's correction. I.e., that they've been OK to rely on the military to date, because there haven't been any incidents of torture provided to the government by the military until Natynczyk's yesterday. That assumes that only the military has had control over information/reporting coming out of Afghanistan. We know that's not true (see Red Cross meetings with various Canadian officials, the Colvin reports that went to deputy ministers, for e.g.). And again, knowing this government, it's just not believable.

4. You have to wonder how that "board of inquiry" move by Natynczyk yesterday will affect the military/Harper government coziness. Will this inquiry just be limited to that particular incident? Doesn't this incident beg the question about whether other information might have been stifled? Isn't there a risk now for Harper that he's got an investigation going on by Natynczyk that he can't control?

5. The time was cut short yesterday at the Afghan Commons Committee and so Peter MacKay et al. faced limited time for questions, 20 minutes instead of 90 minutes.

What to say about this, three Harper cabinet ministers are prevented from testifying on an urgent, significant and politically damaging matter due to procedural riggings by their own government. It's anti-democratic, it's repugnant. I hope the Canadian public is paying attention.